Patrick Range McDonaldSomeone in East Hollywood is very unhappy, probably peeved, with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa . . .
Last Friday, L.A. Weekly photographer Ted Soqui was driving along Santa Monica Boulevard and came up to Susy's Meat Market in East Hollywood when he saw a mural of a solemn-looking Antonio Villaraigosa.
“I don't know why I took a picture of it,” says Soqui, who's always driving around town and taking one-of-a-kind photographs of the people and scenes of Los Angeles, “but it looked like the person put a lot of effort into it.”
He then snapped a picture, posted it on his blog — TedSoqui.Blogspot.com — and figured that would be that.
But when Soqui drove by Susy's Meat Market two days later, on Sunday, he saw someone had splattered red paint on Villaraigosa's face.
Red paint splattered on Villarigosa mural in East Hollywood; Credit: Ted Soqui
“I thought, Wow, that's pretty hard-core,” Soqui now says.
Just below the mural, on the sidewalk, someone also wrote in black spray-paint, “THIS IS OUR TOWN.” (Look at the bottom of the picture.)
Taken altogether, that's a lot of rage aimed at the mayor, and seems to be another sign that Villaraigosa may be facing a weird, and long, four more years at the helm.
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
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